sources:

http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/Debate:Tibet_independence
http://www.freetibet.org/
http://www.mahalo.com/Tibetan_Independence
http://www.friends-of-tibet.org.nz/tibet.html
http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar557140&st=tibet+independence
http://www.tibet.com/WhitePaper/index.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/05/bjork-pisses-china-o.html
http://www.tibet.org/Resources/TSG/Groups/itim.html
http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/section.php?id=27
Aspects of Colonialism:

  • *domination by an alien power;
  • *acquisition of control through military force, unequal treaty;
  • *frequent insistence that the colony is an integral part of the "mother" state;
  • *maintenance of control through instruments of military or administrative and economic power in the hands of the colonial power;
  • *active or passive rejection of alien domination by the colonised people;
  • *suppression, by force if necessary, of persons opposing colonial rule;
  • *chauvinism and discrimination;
  • *the imposition of alien cultural, social and ideological values claimed to be "civilising";
  • *the imposition of economic development programmes and the exploitation of natural resources of the colony, primarily for the benefit of the colonial power;
  • *promotion of population transfer of citizens of the metropolitan state into the colony and other forms of demographic manipulation; *disregard for the natural environment in the colony; and, in most cases, *an obsessive desire to hold on to the colony despite the political and economic cost.

    1. Support of Tibetan nationalism is illegal in China
    2. Pictures of The Dali Lama are smuggled across the border as devotional objects
    3. Current Panchen Lama, Tibet's historical second-in-command, was appointed by Chinese authoroties
Tibetan Deaths
 
**MODE OF DEATH        U-TSANG    KHAM         AMDO      TOTAL**
 
Tortured in prison    93,560          64,877         14,784      **173,221**
 
Executed        28,267          32,266         96,225     **156,758**
 
Killed in Fighting    143,253         240,410         49,042      **432,705**
 
Starved to death    131,072         89,916        121,982      **342,970**
 
Suicide              3,375          3,952          1,675        **9,002**
 
"Struggled" to death     27,951         48,840         15,940       **92,731**
 
**Total:-            427,478   480,261        299,648    1,207,387**
 
* China's signing of the Convention Against Torture on 12 December 1986, and its supposed coming into force at the end of 1988, did not alter the trend.
<span style="font-family: Arial">
 
 
British Foreign Minister David Miliband has changed the UK's position on Tibet,
stating that it is part of China
</span>
  1. Tibet is a model of non-violence and compassion.
  2. It is extremely dangerous for The PRC to have access to the enormous amount of unused uranium in Tibet.
  3. The Tibet-India border is an important geopolitical border to maintain.
  4. If left unchecked, The PRC will become the second largest economy in the world by the year 2010.
  5. The PRC is ruining the Tibetan environment, especially by the dumping of nuclear waste.
  6. The Tibet issue is an opportunity to stop The PRC's imperialistic policy and strategy.
  7. We all have a responsibility to relieve suffering.
  8. Tibet is important for all Buddhists and should be preserved.
  9. As members of the Free World, we are all committed to the idea of Religious Freedom, which The PRC is entirely committed to destroying.
  10. Is there any difference between what The PRC is doing in Tibet & the state-sponsored terrorism that the Free World has vowed to combat?
  • China's celebration of the 40th anniversary of its annexation of Tibet, 146 "criminals" were arrested on 10 April 1991